Afrekening in Caïro (Vandersteen comic)/plot
Colonel Raymond asks Biggles to investigate a report of suspected cocaine smuggling involving the crew of a passenger ship, the Dolphin. Biggles joins the ship at Algiers. At night, he disguises himself as a seaman and visits a waterfront bar reported to be frequented by the ship's crew. Around midnight the bartender gets warning of a police raid and hurried tells a Martinique waitress to leave by the rear exit. But she's too late--the police are outside and want to see her papers. Biggles pretends to be a drunken sailor and scuffles with the policemen, giving the girl a chance to escape. Biggles is arrested but he presents his credentials and asks the local police to help him get the girl's address. Still dressed as a sailor, he calls on the girl. He tells her he had helped her once and now he wants a return favour. Did she know any members of the Dolphin crew? The girl tells him she only knows of one. He came to the bar each time the night before his ship sailed and met with one Ferhat, an Algerian with a scar on his forehead. Biggles waits till the night before the Dolphin is due to depart and visits the bar again. He spots a seaman come, and then leave the bar with Ferhat. Outside, the two of them start a violent argument. Ferhat draws a knife and Biggles rushes in to save the seaman, disarming the Algerian and sending him fleeing. The seaman thanks Biggles but when Biggles asks what is going on, he throws Biggles a hefty punch and runs away. But Biggles finds a capsule on the ground which turns out to contain a small amount of cocaine. As the Dolphin sails, Biggles searches for the seaman. He is diverted by a clay pigeon shooting competition on the deck. A young woman, Claire Bradford, evidently a crackshot, is challenging all comers, with the proceeds of the wagers to be donated to Unicef. Biggles takes her up but ultimately loses. Captain Bannister, the captain of the ship is highly impressed. He gives Biggles permission to make inquiries on board the ship. Biggles continues discreet inquiries and establishes that the seaman is named Bradford. He searches Bradford's cabin secretly but finds nothing unusual except a bag of sand. This puzzles him until he notices the fire buckets along the gangways--all filled with sand! He searches the buckets and eventually discovers a large packet of cocaine, worth a fortune, hidden inside one. Biggles has the packet deposited in the ship's safe. Coming on deck, he spots Claire having an argument with Bradford and then going off in tears. Biggles approaches Bradford with his police credentials and brings him to his cabin for questioning. Bradford at first refuses to talk until Biggles mentions Claire. He then agress to confess all if Claire can be left out of it. But before Bradford can say anymore, a shot is fired through the porthole and kills him! Together with Captain Bannister, Biggles rushes to the stern where the bullet came from. Nobody is there but Biggles finds a cartridge of the same calibre as the rifle which Claire had been using at the clay pigeon shoot. The shot that killed Bradford required a great deal of skill and Claire was certainly a sharpshooter. Claire won't say anything but Biggles reminds her that she is the prime suspect. Biggles had seen her try to enter Bradford's cabin and later she had been arguing with him. Claire reveals that Bradford was her brother. She knew about his criminal dealings and had come on board to persuade him to quit but she had been unsuccessful. She did not know much about the gang for who Bradford worked, only that he expected a big sum of money from this voyage. After arriving in Cairo, he was to bring a sample of the cocaine to some underworld figure. Captain Bannister tells Biggles they have found a notebook in Bradford's tool box. There is an entry: "K.B. Semiramis". Biggles radios Scotland Yard which informs him that K. B. might mean Kemal Bey, a notorious figure in the Cairo underworld. Semiramis was a hotel in Cairo, presumably the rendezvous. With an unknown murderer still on board, Biggles confines Claire to her cabin. Not long later, she finds a note under a tea pot in her meal tray. It warns her to deposit the packet of cocaine in a rubbish chute by the foredeck or she would be killed like her brother. Biggles sets a trap for the murderer. Claire drops a fake packet into the chute while Biggles waits below to catch the person who comes to collect it. Claire dropss the packet but somebody switches off the lights and retrieves the packet. Biggles tries to follow the footsteps in the darkness but the unknown packet collector shoots at him. It is too dangerous to continue the pursuit in the narrow gangways of the ship. The Dolphin arrives at Port Said and Scotland Yard agents come on board to take Claire into protective custody. The passengers and crew are searched before being allow to disembark but nothing is found. Biggles withdraws his packet from the safe and then proceeds to Cairo to check in at the Semiramis Hotel. Arriving at the hotel, Biggles hears a radio broadcast. There has been a car accident and one Claire Bradford, in police custody, had escape in the ensuing confusion! Not long after, Claire calls Biggles and asks to meet him in the hotel lobby. She comes with a man who keeps him covered with a concealed gun. Biggles is surprised she would work for Kemal Bey. Didn't he kill her brother? But Claire tells him she works for a rival gang: Captain Bannister! He offers Biggles half the value of the cocaine for the return of the packet. Claire then draws him aside and whispers. She knows by the laws of the underworld that she would be eliminated just like her brother when her job is done. So she asks Biggles to play along. Make an appointment to hand the cocaine over. She would warn the police. Biggles can't do that himself because he is being closely watched. Biggles gets the hint. He tells the gang to meet him at the pyramids at midnight. Back in his hotel room, there's yet another pair of thugs: these are the men of Kemal Bay and they take him by force to meet their boss. Kemal offers Biggles a deal: hand over the cocaine and he would deliver the whole of Bannister's gang into his hands, a good score for a detective. Biggles counters with another deal: he will hand over the cocaine for a quarter of the value of the cocaine. He will take the proceeds and retire. Meet him at the pyramids at midnight! Biggles prepares for his midnight assignation carefully and conceals a pistol at his ankle. But can he trust Claire? Bannister's gang arrives first. Claire is with them but she is left to guard the car while the others meet Biggles. Bannister demands the cocaine. Biggles was not seen leaving the hotel with the packet so where is it? Biggles tells him he had buried the packet under some stones by the pyramids before checking into the hotel. While Bannister's men dig for it, he would count his money. Bannister laughs--he has no intention of paying up. He will dig for the packet and then kill Biggles. But suddenly another car arrives with Kemal Bey and his men. Other men appear on the pyramid and shoot, killing some of Bannister's me. Kemal doesn't have any intention of paying Biggles either. His men will take over the digging and then kill both Biggles and Bannister. Two of Kemal's men uncover a briefcase in the sand. It must be the cocaine! They open it and there is a big explosion! Biggles dives for cover in the confusion. Bannister tries to reach for his gun but Kemal shoots him. He then shouts for Biggles to give himself up. He can't get away. But Biggles refuses and Kemals men open fire and attempt to assualt his position. Biggles holds off Kemal's men for a while but his ammunition is running low. Suddenly shots come from another direction and Kemal's men begin to fall one by one. It's Claire! She has taken a position high up on a pyramid and is picking off Kemal's gang with a sniper rifle. Kemal makes one last charge but Biggles kills him with his last bullet. The police arrive and the survivors of the gang attempt to flee but crash into a tree and are captured. Back at the hotel, Claire explains that she could not intervene earlier. It had taken her some time to get onto a commanding position above. She was outnumbered and would have stood no chance against the gangs on the ground. She compliments Biggles on the explosive in the briefcase trick. And so they had now eliminated both gangs by playing them off against each other. But where is the cocaine? Biggles laughs. He had left it on board the ship! Bannister had seen him take the bag out but did not suspect that the contents had been left behind. Category:Plot summaries (derivative works)